This invention relates to passenger conveyors, such as moving stairways or escalators, moving passageways, etc., and, more particularly, to a balustrade for a passenger conveyor including a deck cover portion of an improved construction.
Passengers conveyors have been popular and are widely used as important transportation facilities within buildings, sheds, etc. In recent years, a variety of needs have been created for this type of public conveyance with regard to a shortening of the time required for building them, improvements in their designs, etc.
Particularly in respect of the improvements in the design of a passenger conveyor, importance is placed on the balustrades thereof, and the tendency is that newly constructed passenger conveyors are provided with glass panels which are transparent and presentable in appearance. Generally, a glass panel has an inner deck cover and an outer deck cover, which are formed of material other than glass, positioned in abutting relation to the lower portion of the glass panel. To avoid production of a gap between the lower end portion of the glass panel and the inner and outer deck covers at their abutting ends, packings of soft material are mounted between the glass panel and the deck covers at their abutting ends.
However, a small gap tends to be formed between the glass panel and the packings covering the inner and outer deck covers on account of errors in fabrication or assembling, and such gap is inevitable if the present design is continued to be adopted. Such gap not only mars the appearance of the passenger conveyor but also gives rise to problems with regard to the safety of the passengers. For example, children might have their fingers stuck in the gap. Moreover, the inner and outer deck covers tend to have a difference in level between them and this has presented a rather ugly appearance.